president obama gives his first post-election interview. who got the scoop? here's a hint. it wasn't us. i blame toure. >> i'm steve kornacki, more than aa million americans spanning all ages and races share one common belief. god is alive and well, but this isn't your parents' religious renaissance. >> na non-believer's prayers have been answered. doug dynasty invited me on a hunt, and i'm taking you all, too, today on "the cycle." for those of you counting, it's just 27 days, eight hours and 59 minutes until the ball falls in times square. what did you think i was talking about? all those spending cuts and tax hikes that go into effect if washington doesn't make a deal. that means four more weeks of spinning our wheel of misfortune. where will it land today?

follies. that's the perfect term. both sides miles apart. wall street remains optimistic a deal will be reached by january 1st. perhaps in a nod to investors, the president gave his first post-election interview today to none other than bloomberg tv. >> i think that we have the potential of getting a deal done, but it's going to require what i talked about during the campaign, which is a balanced, responsible approach to deficit reduction and unfortunately the speaker's proposal right now is still out of balance. >> nbc's luke russert begins the coverage live on capitol hill. luke, first read this morning put a rather positive spin on duelling deals arguing there's a silver lining if you split the difference. unpack that for us. >> reporter: s.e., you saw that the republicans' offer was immediately dismissed by the white house. president obama, his team of communications advisers saying it's more of the same and won't work. the speaker was not offering to

raise taxes on those making 250 or above. that's a big sticking point. if you look at both plans and split the difference and run the math, if you take the 800 billion in revenue that speaker boehner has offered, the 1.6 trillion the white house wants, you split the difference 1.2. if you split the difference on the cuts, you get to 450, 500 billion. numbers that folks on both sides think is feasible in the realm of a large deal. i spoke to a senior republican senator earlier today, and he said, look. we understand that at some point we have to move away from the tax issue and run that out to provide cover with the base. if we could get something back from the president, whether it be something in the lines of a cost of living adjustment for social security, meaningful entitlement cuts and a promise of tax reform in the 2013 year, something tangible to bring back to the house republican conference that speaker boehner could do that, then we feel that possibly we could have a deal where the 250 or above would go

up. there's another side of the republican conference that says, no. republicans based their entire political existence in the last 20 years not to allow taxes to go up. not under any means will that occur. that's still very much the issue. there is an era of goodwill at least for some people on capitol hill, but publicly both sides are very much in their corners and the negotiations are not ongoing. >> well, we wait with baited breath. thanks, luke. >> you're welcome. >> let's turn to the editor and chief of business insider which covering all things money. henry, welcome. >> thank you. great to be here. >> let's talk specifics a little bit. obama's plan for the fiscal cliff includes 400 billion or so in unspecified cuts, while the republicans have offered 800 billion in unspecified higher tax revenues. has either side gotten specific enough for you guys? >> they haven't gotten specific enough yet, but they both staked

out positions that are imminently compromisable. there's good common ground there. what's preventing that? the republicans saying we'll never raise taxes. the problem is taxes are scheduled to go up. they can't say no to that. they will go up. the only real question for the obstructionists in the republican party is, seriously, you're going to block atax cut? that's what it is. >> i want to play some sound from our friend david gergen on cnn yesterday and get you to comment. >> since this election i think the democrats are the ones who are really trying to rub it in and almost humiliate the republicans, and that's not going to get to a bargain. i think it has to be win-win. you hear among some democrats right now and it's disturbing that maybe just ought to take it over the cliff. we'll score political points against the republicans and it will force our hands in the new

year. that is a very, very dangerous, risky path. >> what do you think? are democrats more interested in humiliating republicans? do they really want a deal? for republicans, what's at stake here? what's the upside? what should the way forward be? >> i think both sides want a deal. if the economy tanks because we have a dysfunctional government that can't accomplish what is a simple deal here, everybody is going to suffer. so both sides want a deal. they've staked out positions that really aren't that far apart. obama will concede on something public at some point, and i think you see some concessions from republicans and we'll see when that happens. maybe it will happen. the idea we're at a fiscal cliff where the economy stops on january 1st is completely misleading. it's a squeeze. everyone will feel it, but then you're in a position where everyone can vote to cut taxes. that might be more politically feasible. >> i like that perspective. you help us take out some of the fear mongering we see, a lot of

the media is perpetuating. that's why we're doing the fiscal follies and the wheel of fortune. fiscal fiesta. the media is doing all this fear mongering and you get a lot out of washington. this is a self-created drama, of course. these cliff negotiations. but the markets are remaining relatively calm and steady. why are investors being so cool and above the fray when everybody else is running around with their heads cut off? >> everybody thinks what you see on tv with the duelling positions and we refuse to negotiate, the market sees it for what it is, which is theater. everyone is staking out the position trying to suck up to the base. there will be behind the scenes caving at some point, and if there isn't, if everyone just says absolutely not, we're not doing a deal, it's bad for both sides if the economy actually gets hurt. there's a real incentive here to compromise at the end of the day. >> let's look at this theater. one of the lines you hear from every republican actor basically

or actress when confronted with the idea of raising income tax rates is small business, what about small business? this is going to affect small business. this is an idea floated by susan collins who expressed some theoretical idea of raising a higher income rait for more revenue from the upper income people. there should be an exemgs or carve out from small business to be exerpt. that means that every wealthy person in the country can run to the accountant and say, make me a small business. >> that's right. stepping back from this, everybody who looks at this has to israel we have both a spending and tax problem. if we close this gap, taxes have to go up and spending growth has to be trimmed. you cannot do it with one or the other. just simply insisting we won't raise taxes, you would have to chop so much government spending you would destroy the economy. the question is, where can they go up? you know what, hate to say it, especially for the richest americans. tax rates are relatively low

historically, so the idea you raise them back to what people considered in the clinton era a reasonable rate is just a reasonable thing to do. it's not outrageous. really defaulting on the fact that tax rates have to go down, ultimately it falls on deaf ears. nobody likes to pay taxes, but we got to close the gap somehow. >> sure. could not agree with you more on that last point. if he we go back to the sort of origins of the self-inflicted fiscal whatever it is, you know, this all came out basically of the debt ceiling crisis of 2011 where republicans said, we are not going to do what we've done repeatedly for the past 30 years and just automatically raise the debt ceiling. we're going to hold the country hostage over that. one thing we keep hearing over and over is markets and businesses hate uncertainty. bruce bar let put this debt limit debate into context better than i could today. he wrote the debt limit is nuts and serves no useful purpose to

allow members of congress to vote for vast cuts in taxation and increases in spending and telling the truzary it's not permitted to sell bonds to cover the deficits that congress created. to my knowledge no other nation has such a screwy system. given the uncertainty that the debt ceiling injects into the legislative process, wouldn't businesses prefer it go away entirely? >> everyone should prefer that, because it's a rid lus construct. congress has the ability to vote for a budget, spending. you have control there. the idea one side or another can basically throw the country to the edge of crisis, which is where we were, default on our debt. are we kidding? what kind of government do we have? the idea you can allow that to happen when the congress already has control over spending is ridiculous. it doesn't serve any purpose. yes, we should do away with that. still have congress have the ability to block it, if they

want to vote to do it, but not incremental increases when they don't serve a purpose. >> okay, henry bloj jet. thanks very much. >> thank you for having me. >> straight ahead, boehner lays down the smackdown on gop-ers who dare to challenge the status quo. later, i go hunting with doug dynasty. i'm so excited for this show. "the cycle" rolls on for tuesday, december 4th. male anno] when a major hospital wanted to provide better employee benefits while balancing the company's bottom line, their very first word was... [ to the tune of "lullaby and good night" ] ♪ af-lac ♪ aflac [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. [ yawning sound ] a new way to save on your prescriptions. it's the aarp medicarerx saver plus plan from unitedhealthcare. with this plan, you can get copays as low as a dollar through a preferred network pharmacy like walgreens -- where you'll find 8,000 convenient locations.

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fall in line or fall. that's the message house speaker john boehner is sending to ultra

conservative republicans today. he stripped four of them of their committee seats for not being, quote, team players. the congressman who lost his seat is dave swi gert from arizona. they claim it was because he voted to principle and not what party leaders wanted him to do. they added this isn't about ideology and about how you treat the people on your team. the general consensus is that washington gridlock is to blame for the fiscal standoff, but this move by the speaker underscores his troubles with the white house but within his own party. does this latest move enforce party discipline in forging a deal or backfire? let's put it through the spin cycle. my take is i don't think the move with getting four guys off the committee tells us much about the standing with the fiscal cliff negotiations. we have to understand three of these guys were so far to the right they had even alienated the tea party. maybe so far to the right isn't

the way to look at it. they voted against the ryan budget in committee. >> it wasn't sacred? >> it didn't balance the budget fast enough. it doesn't bring the budget in balance until 2040. they wanted to balance it faster. ryan and all of his crowd didn't like these guys. eric cantor seen as the chief threat to boehner in the immediate future didn't like them either. it was a consensus decision by tee party republicans and republican leadership and walter jones from north carolina. this is a guy republicans have had it in for half a decade now. he's been an outspoken critic of the iraqi war. the bigger issue with boehner is the story of his entire speakership. it's poorly matched for the moment to have the position of speaker, because he's been in congress for more than 20 years. he was a mag mattic guy for much of his career. no child left behind, and he found himself next in line and then it tea party stuff in 2010.

suddenly all the conservatives took over the house, and you know, they never trusted him. the tea party people don't trust him and the conservatives on talk radio don't trust him. if there's a deal on the fiscal cliff, if there's going to be a deal before january 1st, there will be rate increases of some sort. boehner can't be the guy to lead republicans to that, because they don't trust him and looking for sign of a sellout. what he needs to do here, this goes to the end of the month because boehner has to wait and put up the fight and make it look like he's putting up the filt. other conservatives say it's time to go. >> who would that be? >> people on talk radio and fox news and "wall street journal." >> who in washington would lead that? >> i think the tea partiers in the house are responsive to that information network. that's what happened with -- here's the key. last year the payroll tax was coming up for expiration at end of last year. obama said i wanted it extended for 2012.

republicans at first said no, and boehner had to say no with them. when the deadline came last christmas, around last christmas republicans started to panic but polls showed people would blame them. all of a sudden those voices said let's not have this fight now. >> he's banking on that happening. >> that has to happen again. >> i spent some time working the phones today, because it's interesting to see both sides and by both sides i mean these guys. and then gop establishment guys sort of explain what's going on here today. from the perspective of these so-called dissidents as roll call is calling them. >> that's roll call. from their perspective they're punished for being too conservative. as you pointed out, steve, they're being punished in their minds for going too far to the right of people like speaker boehner. i talked to tim hul's camp, one of the congressman removed from

two questicommittees. he said, look, this is something that establishment republicans do. how often do you see democrats beating up on principle liberals? they don't do it. this doesn't help us build a majority he said. it just confirms his constituents' worst suspicions about how washington works. he just thinks this is sort of insider dirty politics, and i have to agree that it looks silly that you don't like how they behaved so you take them off a committee. it feels a little middle school. then you go to the other side, and i talked to a gop operative today, who said, look, it's a dance. there's a difference between voting your district and actively trying to make leadership look bad. so there is a sense on the hill that maybe some of these guys were going out of their way to embarrass the party and that that's what it's about. it really isn't ideology or being too conservative. >> the republican party is sort of famously disciplined in lock step.

it's a major departure over the last couple of years not to have that. i want to be careful not to make too much of a story like this, because i think most people around the country, even hardcore grassroots tea party activists don't care too much who is on what committee. it's not a story people outside of d.c. follow that much. i do think it's an interesting window into the particular challenge that john boehner has. another interesting window is also happening where both sides laid out their plans, their initial starting point for the fiscal cliff negotiations. first read called both of the plans sort of playing to the base. the difference is that the democratic base looked at the president's plan and said it looked pretty good. the republican base is very split. for example, senator jim demint said speaker boehner's tax hike will destroy american jobs and allow politicians to spend even more, et cetera, et cetera. keep in mind where boehner

started, that's not where they're going to end up. they have to go to the left, so he's going to have a problem on his hands at least from some parts of the party. this woenn't be the end, either. immigration is probably next. that's another tough pill for some republicans to swallow, so this is going to be an ongoing saga. >> you're right that it is a very inside the beltway story, but it is sort of an important story in that we see how boehner has to deal with this caucus. he's kind of got multiple factions around him, multiple parts of the gop to rein in. that's probably the most difficult part for him, and he has this white house very powerful, has the leverage, has the wind at its back from just winning the election. the people are saying that they're going to blame the republicans if this -- if we dive off the cliff. now, if they don't sell the capitulation in the right way, then the right is going to -- the primary is going to be very

bloody for the right. so it's a lot of problems for boehner. we're going to see how skillful and how powerful and how really strong and how good of a politician he is over the next month, how he handles the challenge. the white house doesn't want to ultimately damage boehner too badly because if you lose him, you lose his power and he steps down. he's only speaker two more years. who do you get next? somebody not as moderate and not going to want to negotiate in the same way that he has? so it's careful situation for all around. >> yeah. eric cantor, the thing that protects boehner the most from a mutiny is he doesn't want to deal with it right now. that if anything else keeps boehner in the job for two more years. up next, is america in the tloes of a religious revival? it may not feel like it, but the numbers show religion is as powerful and influential as ever. [ female announcer ] a classic meatloaf recipe from stouffer's

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he found 7 in 10 americans are at least moderately religious and about 40% of americans attend service at least once a week. by many metrics we're about as religious as almost any time since the great depression, but there's one big countertrend.

since 1969 there's hey sharp, steady rise in americans with no religious identity and don't know what their religious is. god is alive and well says our next guest, that's the title of his book, but an increasing swath characterizes it with good as it's complicated. in the guest spot today frank newport. welcome, frank. >> good to be with you. >> you talk about the rise of the nones which have risen sharply since 1969. many have no specific religious leaning. what does that say about society that a growing and growing number of people are saying, not for me. i'm not getting anything out of that? >> well, we have to be careful what we're looking at here. the rise of the nones, it's not sally fields the flying nun but n-o-n-e-s. there's a lot of changes in religion.

we have an increase in americans who no longer are affiliated with protestant who say i'm just christian. they go to broad churches that don't have specific identifications. what we are seeing is particularly since the '50s is more and more americans say i'm not sure i affiliate with specific religion. do you believe in god? we found 9 out of 10 do. we have a significant and profound change in the way in which americans express their spirituality and worship, but that doesn't mean we're a totally secular nation. that's why i wrote the book to point it out. >> i don't think we're saying we're a totally secular nation, but a larger group of people are saying not for me. i don't understand. this doesn't have any reference to me. relevance to me. i wonder, do you find people saying, religion is still answering their problems and solving their questions as they once said? i feel like my grandparents or parents' generation, more turned

to the church and church leaders to make them feel better about life and fewer and fewer to almost no people of my age who i know do that. >> well, that's an interesting question, the people of your age don't. there are people of your age that do around the country, although religion is more important to it people as they get older. yes, we still have a significant percent of americans who say religion can answer problems and pray. as you mentioned at the outset, quite a few go to church. if you add in those that say you go to church seldom, you're up to 77% of americans who go to church occasionally he. they say they do still turn to religion, and we know religion has a policy impact in many aspects of the society that we see when we look at political and other social movements across the country. >> one thing that fas naturesci is they have better emotional

hep and in some instances better physical health than those not religious. don't join a gym and join a church. why do you think there are those physical and emotional benefits from religion? >> good question. you know, that finding has been pretty well documented. our data showed we did nalgsz on our data, but other scholars in other published articles and elsewhere found the same correlation. the question is is correlation causation? maybe people happy choose to be religious and people healthy choose to be religious. there's recent research that shows there's casualty, religion causing well-being and happiness. one explanation is religious service attendance. some scholars headed by dr. robert putnam at harvard pointed out in research that they are so-called supercharged friends. we have a church when we go to religious services, we have a better sense of social support and that in turn leads to a higher sense of well-being and

happiness. >> you talk also about class arguments. a lot of seculars and militant atheists and people who just turn their nose down at religious people make arguments against religion for being sort of culturally and socioeconomically less than. religious people are less educated and wealthy. that's the argument they may. you say not true. you pack that. >> very interesting. when you look at the data carefully it is true that people with lower levels of education and income are more likely to say religion is personally important to them and more likely to pray. however, when we look at social participation in religion, i.e., going to church it's level. upscale people are just as lickly to attend services of those who are lower. i think the relationship between social class and religion is complex. people use religion differently depending on the class position.

>> i appreciate you going on. i feel there's an elephant in the room here. i hope you forgive me. we cover politics on the show, and anybody covering politics this fall spent time talking about gallup polls and the presidential race and you had mitt romney up through to laexz day and took heat over that. i wonder going forward, have you taken any steps or are you planning to take any steps sort of in response to what happened in your polls this year? >> oh, yeah. we're constantly reviewing what we do when it comes to election polling, and actually our final polling results were fairly close within the margin of errors with most other polls where the popular vote would be. we're constantly review election polling which is a complex animal as you know. we are reviewing procedures in what we do. if there's something we should tweak or change before the next election rolls around, we'll certainly do it. >> thanks, frank. straight ahead, which lawmakers

fight hardest for your family? "working mother" magazines grades or electorates.

oh, let me guess --ou see this? more washington gridlock. no, it's worse -- look, our taxes are about to go up. not the taxes on our dividends though, right? that's a big part of our retirement. oh, no, it's dividends, too. the rate on our dividends would more than double. but we depend on our dividends to help pay our bills. we worked hard to save. well, the president and congress have got to work together to stop this dividend tax hike. before it's too late. hi, i'm ensure clear... clear, huh? i'm not juice or fancy water. i've got nine grams of protein. that's three times more than me! [ female announcer ] ensure clear. nine grams protein. zero fat. in blueberry/pomegranate and peach.

this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. i was raised by a single mom who had to put herself through school while looking after two kids. she worked hard every day and made a lot of sacrifices to make sure we dwgot everything we ne d needed. >> our chief of staff said i can't be here until 7:00 or 8:00 at night. i need to get home at 5:00 to make dinner for my kids and being with them home from school. we said, fine, let's have a flexible schedule so you can have hours that work for you. >> working moms like me, we got a lot of tlc when our votes were

needed but now not so much. the boys are back in town, and all the talk of flexible hours, equal pay and care for aging parents has dropped off the face of the earth or maybe the fiscal cliff. the families still face the same challenges every day. a new poll finds that an overwhelming 86% of voters say it's important for congress to consider new family friendly laws like paid sick days and family and member legal insurance. ultimately these are critical pocketbook issues. our next guest is championing family friendly legislation for years but says there is no reason to be hopeful. let's bring in working mom and ceo carol evan, the latest issue of working mother magazine is now out. carol, thanks for being with us. start with the issue you're focused on right now. the united states is the only developed country in the world that doesn't have paid maternity

leave. i know you all are really pushing for paid parental family leave. i think the moral and ethical and sort of personal case for that is pretty clear-cut. a sticking point has always been the business community. so how do you make the case to the business community that we should have mandatory paid paternal leave? >> actually, the business case has been made so beautifully with our 100 best companies of working mothers we name every year. 100% of them have paid family leave. only 16% of all companies in this country offer paid family leave. these companies are thriving and doing super well, and their stocks are up. there's a lot of discussion about how when you do the right thing for your employees, your employees are happier, healthier, more focused, and more efficient. it's good for business. so to be the only country in the world that doesn't have mandated, paid family leave makes us less efficient, less

effective and less capable of doing the work we need on our employees to do. >> amen, carol. you have a list of the lawmakers working hardest and most effectively for working fathers. talk about some of the senators. i want to focus on the senate. some of the snores who get a grade a from your magazine and what are the things they are pursuing that give you that grade a? >> bob casey and kristen gillibrand, let's start with them. all the senators who made our list are doing two things. one is that they're either sponsors or voting for bills family friendly. they also have to qualify by having tremendous policies for their own employees. most people don't realize that the employees of senators and representatives are on their own to negotiate their own benefits with their senator or representative employer. so how do they treat their own employees is something that we wanted to look at, too.

these senators are giving great maternity benefits, flexible work arrangements and under such tough circumstances because these are extreme jobs, as you all know. >> carol, i was pleased to see you have some republicans on this list and some republican men to boot. what can the party, the gop do to learn from these guys as they try to overcome that so-called war on women that they had to combat over the past years going forward? what great things did these republican guys do that they should take a page from? >> the republicans really stood strong on family friendly policies. whether it was a pay discrimination act or something about the vote for the hiring the heroes of america act, these republican senators came through. they also treated their employees really well. i mean, i think it's very distressing the do nothing congress really did nothing for

american families, and that is absolutely a fact. not one piece of legislation except for the vow to hire heroes, that was the only family friendly legislation that got passed in the last two years. that was highly distressing for us as we looked at our criteria. nonetheless, you know, 35 republican senators signed the petition -- not the petition, but you know, supported the equal pay act, and 185 representatives did. so i think that there's a tremendous amount of support for these policies, but really nothing got done because it was just that, you know, election year cycle that was so painful this time around. >> yeah. it's an interesting point about treating these politicians as employers, too, and asking how they treat the people that work for them. are there some names that jump out of lawmakers who do not treat their employees that well? >> well, i really hate it to name names of people who do

poorly, but, you know, really -- >> come on. you do have names. you surveyed all of them, so you have a sense from top to bottom who is treating well and who isn't? >> don't protect the ones not treating them well? >> we're all about the carrot and not the stick at "working mother" magazine. we award companies for being the best. we don't punish want ones that are the worse, even though we know who they are. we're all about putting out role models and this is so helpful. four republicans struggling with the issues or democrats on the fence to look at the role models of the senators and representatives who are really doing the right thing and not just because it's right for their constituency but because it's right for the whole country. that's what we have to get it. >> it's the modern parenting philosophy we praise we don't spank. my parents are like -- >> you can link it to me off the

air. >> i'll tell you later. >> very diplomatic answer. maybe you should run for office yourself. you seem to have those political answers down. another thing as i'm looking at this, and i should say i'm actually pregnant right now and i'm a working mom right now. >> congratulations. so exciting. >> thank you. that are very near and dear to my heart even outside of that, but in addition to paid family leave, what are some other important policy issues that we should be looking at and pushing for in the future? >> we looked at whoufs who was sponsoring bills on breast feeding and the pregnancy discrimination act. you'd be surprised how much pregnancy discrimination is still in the marketplace. paid sick leave was a very important thing to it look at voting on. and the working families flexibility act, which actually requires employers to consider flexibility for their employees on a nonspecific basis. let's get flex working for

everyone. i think that, though, the most important, is the equal pay act. that is the most important, paycheck fairness act. that's most important to us, because that really makes the playing field level for women. women are holding up half of the sky in this country for sure on the work side. we crossed that 50% of employees and being women in this country. of course, the big one of all is the paid family leave. we have 50,000 petitions signed for the paid family leave act, and we'd like all of your viewers to go on workingmother.com/paidleave and sign the petition. >> thank you very much. thank you so much for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> up next what s.e. calls a life changing experience. hunting with duck dynasty.

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covered by 90% of insurance plans, including medicare. find your co-pay at myflexpen.com. ♪ but the fire is so delightful ♪ nothing melts away the cold like a hot, delicious bowl of chicken noodle soup from campbell's. ♪ let it snow, let it snow maybe you've caught a passing glance of them. a miss he tear yus bearded clan plotting their next undercover operation. they're the men of duck dynasty, the hit a & e that has taken the nation by storm. "duck dynasty" it's about a family of successful duck call

makers in louisiana has set ratings records last year. one look at the show it's understand hard to see why, they're hilarious. suddenly a show about hunting is a must see show about family, faith and funny high jinxes. if you're not up to date, there's phil and kay robertson who started the business, phil's brother, phil's sons and their wives. i had the immense pleasure of heading down to louisiana last week to spend some quality time with the family to see what makes them so gosh darn watchable. first, we got down to business. the business of duck hunting. [ gunshots ] >> 5:00 aa.m. came early as we loaded into the tank, you heard me right, to head out on the duck blind. you can see i'm in love with this all right. >> i shot the first duck one. >> you probably got the first duck. >> when i saw my decoy sink when she was shooting ducks and

decoys at once. >> i killed a decoy dead in his tracks. >> i'm feeling good about picking this spot now. >> as the sun came in and the rain came in, the ducks weren't landing but phil shot out words of wisdom. >> most people never look up and view what we call the grand passage. once upon a time eons ago, one mistake and your feet are sticking up. >> right. >> did you try phil he's coffee? >> i did. i had a whole cup of it. >> you like it? >> you keep going up on the list. >> the camaraderie of sitting in a duck blind for five hours. they're none for duck calls, so there was a lot of this going on. >> with my wood duck and decoy in hand, we packed it up and called it a day. if you watch "duck dynasty" like

i know you do, that only means one thing. it's time to eat. crawfish pie. they welcomed us with open arms and fried oysters and shrimp and pie. as is the case every week, it brought the whole family together. i think the thing that's amazing is while it's at least the current show, it's a show about hunting, but clearly it's about so much more. it'smore. >> right. >> it's about family and -- >> when we talk to fans, it's like all about the family. >> yeah. >> just the fact that they see that and either they relate to it as their family is like that. it's making people sit down at the dinner table more. >> you all have kids. how do you avoid not letting all of this get to you? >> it's not like we go away to work. we're here. our work is our family. >> i think, too, keeping their lives all the same, not changing that, and not pushing that into i want my kid in at this time. >> i think one of the other things people really like about the show is that it shows

multiple generations still in each other's lives. >> our kids, they just go hunting with us when they're little. i take my kids as much as possible. >> yeah. >> and they want to go. >> and kids all over in america that watch this show and get into hunting, their parents don't hunt, so it's important for us to pass it down not just to us but all over. >> we believe in god's grocery store. >> it's clean, decent, honorable sport that takes out your sons and daughters' time. they're spending time. you're with them. there's a lot of things they could be getting into besides being out in the middle of the woods. >> what's next for y'all? >> we're on an island. >> escape. >> we're all going to save and join -- >> we'll save.

>> nobody else is going to buy duck calls. only duck hunters buy duck calls. there's a lot more people buying duck calls than there are duck hunters now. >> speaking of duck calls, i needed a lesson from the duck commander himself. i'll just try. is it this end? >> blow it just like that. that's all you got? >> is he messing with me? >> try the other end. now try that one. >> good start. >> has any idiot ever asked you to bedazzle a duck call? >> no, but i almost did. >> i'm glad you chose otherwise. >> why? >> because. it's not a pretty look. >> you're going to do it now? great. >> i'm going to bling it out. >> gross. >> and i'm going to say s.e. this this great idea. >> don't blame me. everyone will hate me. >> the bedazeled duck commander. >> s.e. 1,000. >> back at the house no meal with the robertsons would be

complete without ribbing uncle cy. >> he used to smoke. he heard something cough and he looked down and that wind was blowing that cigarette smoke down and the deer was -- >> i thought the guy had come back to say something to me because i heard a cough. i looked down there and the deer was coughing. 95% of everything i tell you is true. >> okay. >> i do throw in 5% to spice it up. >> okay. >> really appreciate it. >> glad you're here. >> thanks. thanks. it's great. >> we're just a regular louisiana family. >> oh, well, i just had so much fun as i'm sure you could see there. and actually they sent me home with this duck decoy. i killed this pretty bad. >> it's got like multiple gunshot wounds. >> there's holes in it. i also got a couple live ones,

but this will be forever on my desk. a memory of that amazing trip. >> what's the situation around your neck? i'm wearing some duck calls i got. now that i know the right end to blow out of, these will come in handy on my next duck hunt. >> can you do one? >> no thanks. duck dynasty airs wednesday night at 10:00/9:00 central on a & e. tomorrow is the christmas special. this snapshot just became my christmas card. and believe it or not, this family has a lot in common with your family. i'll explain next. [ female announcer ] think a thick cream is the only way to firm skin? challenge the need for such heavy measures with olay. regenerist micro-sculpting serum for firmer skin in 5 days. pretty heavy lifting for such a lightweight. [ female announcer ] olay regenerist.

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some of you may be wondering why we took eight minutes out of our program to share some footage with a bunch of red neck duck hunters in louisiana. i agree it hardly seems like something this network would do, but for one you underestimate my co-hosts and my bosses who have been incredibly generous and open-mined when it comes to keeping their strange little conservative happy. for another, they realized and i hope you do too no that the story of duck kine dynasty is so much more than a story about duck hunting. the rocketsons are an oasis of hope in a vast desert of depravity. the american family as depicted on television is practically unrecognizable to many of us, whether it's the raunchy drunken idiots of "jersey shore," the sad exploitation of "hoony booboo" or the gaudy materialism of "the real housewives," very few families today are people you would want your children around for more than a few minutes. we may be entertained by snooki's club hopping exploits

or the well-heeled cat fights of beverly hills, but these aren't families we want to emulate. they weren't people we aspire to be. at least i hope not. the robertsons are simple, hard working, fun loving people who put faith and family ahead of everything else. they give back to their community. their kids say please and thank you. they don't cuss. they don't scream at one another. they don't get drunk and arrested, and i have only seen phil and miss kay make out once. believe it or not, they're still pretty fun to watch. you don't have to be a hunter to appreciate their values, although knowing your way around a frog pond might help with a few things but it's not to know that every wednesday night there's a family on television you can watch with your family. and i'm proud that we have a show, the cycle, that sees the value in that. thanks for indulging me, the trip was incredible will i special to me. i hope you enjoyed it too. that does it for us. martin, it's all yours. >> thanks so much, s.e., and thank you, guys. good afternoon. it's tuesday, december the 4th,